I work downtown and its sad to see it slowly die. Lease rates are so high that retail is slowly disappearing in favor of professional businesses. The city needs to stop throwing money at the monarch and do more to support small businesses downtown. Help business out with street presence and signage as opposed to making things harder.

What restaurants are you thing of downtown? Local and Mario's? Sabi is pretty nice now that it has been renovated. I'm fairly sure it is open in the evenings.

Edit: almost forgot. Why don't they get rid of the old Canadian Tire and Walmart? Both great retail locations for smaller businesses but major eyesores as they are now.

The wal mart and crappy tire are prime lots 1 mil + each nobody wants to/ has the money to start anything there, what the hat needs is an activity area/zone, in the old Walmart/ crappy tire, think Ruckers/ chuck-e-cheese but 20x bigger and 1000x better, calgarys got one right outside of town and it pretty awesome, theres a go kart/ mini golf/ arcade place in Spokane, the building itself isn't much bigger than the standard arcade, itd be a great investment

I think that's a great idea. But I've heard Walmart refuses to sell its buildings. Not sure how much truth there is to that. I could see them refusing to a new competitor but not an entertainment type business.

So much potential. I've thought that ever since I moved here... But it just drags its feet.. Lots of little business's seem to make an attempt... But just waste away.. I'll admit I don't see a lot of great effort in new business's trying to draw interest. There's a new collectibles shop downtown.. I think they have the right idea.. Not just comics and action figures... All sorts of cool stuff.
How the hell is penny profit still operating.. It's full of junk!

I've lived here a lot through out my life so far, and honestly would love to see a lot more. The problem is it'll never really happen. I'd like the outdoor water-slide to come back. A Drive In Theater for the summer as well. A proper skate park - indoor/outdoor. We need more for all ages of Medicine Hat - also bring back tourists. I can rant on and on -I won't. I'm actually unhappy with Medicine Hat.

I'm pretty excited about all the projects the city has on the go. The hospital expansion, the new bridge on the highway, the new over(under?)pass that's in the works for the transcanada/dunmore rd intersection, the new arena - which is right by our house. I love progress and infrastructure. Once the New Arena gets built we're going to see more businesses follow suit and open up in the box springs area/costco area. You'll likely see at least one hotel, hopefully a nice, sit down, restaurant The Keg or maybe a Red Lobster (there's really nothing but mom&pop shops, fast food, and pubs on this side of the river).

I have a business in town. It's been a tough go but I'd love to get into another one. A shop downtown of some kind.. But yeah, what type. You know, up on Aberdeen the chocolate shoppe and cafe caprice.. Both close at 4... It's pretty ridiculous. Just one more place downtown to get a decent lunch rush and late dinners with drinks..
That new weenie place is pretty good but the foot traffic on that street is kind of the shits